Mega-Weeds and Corner Beads
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 22)
Gardening begins with daybreak and ends with backache
“Godzilla Weed”
Last week started with more of a bang than we were expecting. On Sunday, we took some friends over to show them the progress on the house. It had been about 3 days since we’d been at the house last, spending some time out of town earlier that weekend and running errands. We walked through the home and then proceeded to lead our friends to the garden. To our surprise, we had a new guest in our yard. 4.5ft tall stalks were protruding out of the stone path and surrounding ground ivy and landscaping. Hundreds of them. Just 3 days ago I had been in the garden and noticed nothing like this plant, but suddenly a large portion of our garden was consumed with what looked like a bamboo with reddish stalks and oval leaves with a bright red edge to them at chest height.
We took a couple pictures and immediately went home to do some research. Through some help on the landscaping forum on reddit, we learned that we were infested with what is called Japanese Knotweed…otherwise known as Godzilla Weed or Fire Bamboo. This weed we later learned is one of the world’s most invasive species, and one of the most difficult plants to kill. With a strong root structure of over 12ft wide and 9 ft deep, digging out knotweed isn’t an option as a single cm of leftover root will regrow an entirely new swath of weed very quickly. It can grow up to 13 feet tall in about 2 weeks, and often takes years and years to control. We even read that Japanese Knotweed had once been responsible for a murder-suicide in Europe after a homeowner was driven mad by the weed at his home! It can grow through asphalt, concrete, and stone, so it’s no wonder it drove a man crazy!
After calling the Michigan DNR and other local wildlife resources we took some suggestions and got to work. I purchased glyphosate in the form of Concentrate Plus of Roundup…. and rather than diluting it, we cut every single stalk about 3in above the ground and injecting it into the hollow bamboo-like stalk individually. After cutting each stalk, we immediately bagged it as to not spread the weed further, and are allowing them to dry out so that we can burn them as you are not supposed to allow normal lawn clipping services to pick them up for disposal, which will only spread it. It will still likely take us many more years of this before we are rid of the plant, but hopefully the next growth will be significantly weaker and more manageable. We will continue to weaken and “suffocate” it until hopefully we’ve killed all portions of the root system.
Drywall Finishing
As of today, I’d say about 90% of our drywall is finished, sanded, and ready to paint! The nook and kitchen have even gotten their first coat of primer already! Now that all of our arches and corners are straight, sharp, and finished on the first floor, we can finally get a true sense of the finish line!
Hardwood Arrives!
Our new oak hardwood floors were dropped off last weekend. They have been acclimating to the humidity of the home for a couple days now and installation actually begins today! We are excited to see our old original floors married with the new!
Lion Gets a New Look
Our driveway light, which was a rusted out, no longer functional light with a cast lion on top has been a mini project of mine to restore. I dropped it off at Federal Industrial Blasting on 8 Mile Rd and they happily sandblasted and powder coated it for me beautifully! So much detail emerged from the light! I then went to Materials Unlimited in Ypsilanti and they helped me find some vintage marbled glass from an 1920s Cincinnati Pharmacy to replace the broken panes and have cut and inserted the new glass in for me. Next up is to rewire the light and find a new solution to rewiring and attaching it to the house!
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Thanks to Detroit Curbed for following our story!
